Through faith and service, Filfred has found purpose in overcoming self-doubt and uplifting others.
To senior Mikayla Filfred, the most important question a student can ask isn’t found in a textbook, but rather it’s found in the heart: “Who are you going to serve next?”
As a Navajo student and the recently crowned Miss Indian BYU, Filfred hopes to be “living proof” that Native students can not only attend a university like BYU, but successfully finish “and feel supported, seen and valued throughout their experience.”
As Miss Indian BYU, Filfred sees her role as both a responsibility and an opportunity to represent her community. She hopes to reshape how Native students view higher education, especially at a faith-based institution.
“I just want the Native community to see that you can come here and have a positive experience,” she said. “That you can not only come here, but also finish.”
For Filfred, that visibility matters. She understands that for many Native students, the path to higher education can feel uncertain. Her goal is to show that it is possible to succeed while staying grounded in both faith and culture.
Filfred also recognizes that for many, balancing cultural identity and faith can be complex. Rather than viewing those experiences as conflicting, she has come to see them as complementary.
“Balancing the gospel and your culture can be challenging,” she said. “But it doesn’t have to be negative. For me, I have enjoyed finding a way for them to coexist because I know it can be done. And that journey has been very rewarding."
That perspective has been shaped not only by her successes, but by the effort it took to achieve them.
As a first-generation college student, Filfred carved her own path, often navigating unfamiliar spaces along the way.
Growing up in Rangely, Colorado, as a homeschooled student, Filfred grew up far removed from a traditional path to higher education. After earning a degree in entrepreneurship from LDS Business College, she had planned to enter the workforce and not return to school.
That changed while serving a mission in the Canada Edmonton Mission. Encouraged by her mission president, she applied to BYU in a single day, despite doubting whether she was “smart enough” to belong.
“I just didn’t know if I could compete,” she said.
She was accepted.
Even as opportunities opened, including a once in a lifetime opportunity to be a teacher at the Missionary Training Center, self-doubt remained constant.
“It’s been a huge challenge my whole life to feel like I’m enough to do something,” Filfred said.
But over time, her faith began to reshape how she understood that feeling. “God loves to make something out of nothing,” she said. “Even if you feel like all you have to offer is sand and rocks, He can and wants to turn that into something, we just have to be brave enough to offer something in the first place” referencing her favorite story of the brother of Jared from the Book of Mormon.
Even so, she says her faith has been a steady source of reassurance. “In everything, there’s always been something where [the Savior] lets me know, ‘This is where you’re supposed to be.’”
That sense of guidance became especially clear when she was deciding what to study.
Although she initially pursued business at BYU, a quiet drive home from Colorado became a turning point. Thinking about advice her parents had given her, she asked herself a simple question: What would I do for free?
“The answer was teaching,” she said. “I just had this whole come-to-Jesus moment and I knew without a doubt that is what I needed to pursue.”
She changed her major the very next day.
Now graduating in secondary education with an emphasis in English and a minor in American Indian Studies, Filfred has already taught hundreds of missionaries during her time at the MTC. For her, teaching became more than a career path, it became a form of service.
When she aligned her work with that purpose, everything changed.
“Studying didn’t feel like work anymore,” she said. “It became rewarding and fulfilling once my mindset shifted from pressure to purpose.”
That shift also required faith, trusting that her efforts, however small they felt, could become something more.
Studying at BYU, Filfred discovered that faith could extend beyond Sunday worship into every part of life.
“BYU has given me the opportunity to not only see but to actually live how the Spirit can exist in all aspects of life,” she said. “It can exist at work; it can exist at school; it’s something I’ve felt every day, not just on Sundays.”
That understanding now shapes how she approaches her future as an educator. For Filfred, teaching isn’t just about mastering content, it’s about bringing both knowledge and spiritual awareness into the classroom.
“You can’t teach what you don’t know,” she said. “I know that I cannot be an effective teacher without the Spirit.”
Getting to this point, however, required significant sacrifice. “There was a lot of hard work behind this,” she said, describing her journey.
“Even with a strong support system, the day-to-day was hard — balancing work, school, and being away from home. There were a lot of lonely moments, but my faith and the teachings I was raised with carried me through.”
Now, Filfred stands ready to serve the next generation, especially students who may not yet see themselves in spaces like BYU — continuing to ask the same question that shaped her journey: Who are you going to serve next?
